The Unforgiven Mercs: Discovering the Pieces

Well, apart from that fateful day in the forest with Keros, basically nothing that sticks in my mind happened for….probably three years, so basically, I’ll summarize what happened over those years. I took the amulet and woke around my neck, and it made me proud, kinda gave me a sense of belonging, leaving Rayne behind at the orphanage still tore at me on the inside until it basically turned me numb, the very few emotions I could really show were aggression and sadness. Of course I had changed physically, and thanks to the dragon blood that flow through me, I had many convulsions (growth spurts, as Fiera called them) which had changed my skeleton significantly, I had become rather tall and thin, and some of my bones had sharp growths which protected my joints, and it had come lighter and yet stronger at the same time. My features had also sharpened, my face somewhat elongating, and my teeth were slightly more dragon-like, and if you looked at my skin with dragon eyes, it had effectively become very small scales. I wore a long, scrappy cloak I found to cover my tail, and had shortly become an adept hunter and pickpocket; basically anywhere that wasn’t civilization was considered my home and I went through life mainly based through my instincts, which had stirred up rumors from hunters of a wild boy around towns. I had also been learning the old language from Fiera, which was the most honorable ways to speak to dragons, and it also helped me command my ‘guardian element’, but I’ll get to that later.1

The sun being high in the sky seemed to give a pleasant warmth over the hills which seemed to defend the town of Dargus, and I strolled in, passing the mountainous walls which blocked the structures within. It was like any normal town really, massive walls, dirt streets, occasional patches of grass, and various people running around all over the place,2

“Nothing much of value here…” I muttered to Fiera,3

“Skari, you know I don’t approve of stealing” Fiera said,4

“Yes Mother” I muttered with a heavy amount of sarcasm, she ignored the comment and continued; to tell you the truth it had made me feel slightly better that I actually did have a mother-like figure looking out for me, save the fact that I didn’t know exactly were she was and that she was a Dragon. I walked through the town rolling my eyes, before she said something of use,5

“…There is a tournament in that town” she waited for the reaction on my face, which was a somewhat perked up look, “Reward of 100 gold pieces to the winner and a job opportunity…” suddenly I felt sad again,6

“Money’s good, but a job for someone like me? At my age?” I asked, Fiera sighed,7

“I really hope you find that Rayne girl…cos I don’t want you being depressed for the next 2000 years” that made me feel worse, she grew stern, “Now stop that attitude, hide your tail and maybe your eyes and you’ll be fine, go for it!” she said in an attempt to cheer me up, I just nodded and looked around for the tournament, which, when I arrived was just about to start. 8

Luckily, before I had left the orphanage I knew how to write, the man supervising the signups looked at me curiously, and, inspecting me over and my weapon (A polished staff I ‘acquired’ from some noble) he walked away muttering to himself: “You got no ‘ope boy” I just ignored him and walked into the ring. The ‘ring’ was a small fenced square, filled with large amounts of dirt, and, n closer inspection, patches of dry blood and old teeth could be found scattered throughout it. I grabbed the gate, my nerves holding strong, and a hand grabbed me on the shoulder, I looked around and saw the man. He was rather tall—No, very tall, and had the steel grey eyes and silver hair,, he was built like a knight wearing a full suit of armor, and he was wearing just clothes, he had a hearty smile on his face,9

“Hey, kid, someone told me t’tell you keep moving, and to keep fighting low…” he said, before patting my shoulder and walking off,10

“Who was he?” I thought, before opening the gate and walking in, just ignoring the brief moment, and yet….he seemed trustworthy. I looked at the snickering men in front of me, some wielding pitchforks and various other farming implements, and others, well, they had swords, axes…you know. 11

The announcer stepped up and took a deep breath,12

“Alright, combatants, in this tournament, it’s very simple, the first and second rounds will be one round: the group will fight until only one stands, and that one person gets to fight the holder of this tournament: Garret Ulysses…” the announcer called, making a motion to a person standing near the back of the crows, standing next to the silver haired giant of a man. He was of a medium height and extremely well built, he had several scars covering his hands, neck, and face, including one running from the right side of his face down to his mouth, narrowly avoiding his eye, he had long black hair and stubble, and carried a bastard sword which was lazily held on his shoulder, and he wore various pieces of armor; two steel shoulder pads and knee pads, a single bracer on his right arm and bits and pieces of armor coving his legs. He seemed to watch me with quiet, calculating eyes, I watched him with an irritated glare, and then…it finally happened,13

The fight started, Garret quietly whispered to himself at a tone so I couldn’t hear,14

“Is that the boy she told me about?”15

The ring turned into what was an organized event into something resembling a drunken street brawl over a squabble concerning 3 gold pieces, bodies lunged at each other and tried to bludgeon, stab, and slash whoever they could into submission. Lucky most of the attention wasn’t on me, just two guys who seemed to have a truce with each other, they eyed me with vicious grins,16

“I’m gonna win me an easy 100…” the smaller one said, holding a rusty short sword, he had a larger, grotesque looking man standing next to him wielding a bar stool17

“Heh, right you are boss” he muttered, gritting his teeth, and with a roar they rushed at me. I just crouched down into a fighting stance, holding the staff out behind me like a club, my tail keeping completely and utterly still, breathing quietly, Garret rubbed his chin thoughtfully, but his eyes were expecting something. I began to move back as the sword wielding thug poised himself to stab at me,18

“Quistas Du-verk” I hurriedly muttered as I twirled round and raised an open hand out at him, his blade came forward and…19

It froze. A ball of sand materialized from the dirt in front of him and grabbed the sword, throwing it a few metres away from him.20

I’ll stop the story for a moment to explain: A dragon’s scale colour indicates what their ‘guardian element’ is, and what other thing they may have partial control, for example, Keros (the dragon in the forest) was a green dragon, and he had manipulation over trees and other plant-life, and since forests are generally places where things are able to live, he could also heal some wounds. Now my scales are a lightish brown, well, the colour of sand, which indicates that I’m a Desert Dragon, which means I can use sand to my advantage, and since deserts are places that are formed from time and never seem to change over time, I also have very, very, small manipulation over time.21

The stupid idiot never even got to realize what was happening until I brought the staff around and hit him very, very hard across the jaw, making him spin through the air and land a few feet on the ground behind him. His lackey didn’t really seem to get the point and tried to him me with the chair in an open arc from behind me, this caused my instinct to kick in, making me spin around in a sweeping motion and trip the guy, who somehow managed to flip around completely and land on his head. I stood up straight and dusted off my hands, eyeing the others, the majority of them had been knocked out, two figures had been thrown into barrels, one had been thrown through the fence completely, and three others just sorta lay in various areas of the ring, groaning. The remaining man was a quivering mess; a small, lanky guy who had been sitting on the sides, watching the others beat themselves silly, and lay the last blow on the remaining ‘brawler’ and when he saw the use of my magic, he flipped. I just yawned lazily and took one step forward….sadly enough that’s all I needed to do to win, the other guy ran…straight into a wall, I just sorta stared at it quizzically, man, was that guy a wimp or what?22

With the round over, two bystanders dragged the unconscious people out of the arena, Garret jumped straight in, shoving the massive two handed sword into the ground, and drawing a short, one-handed broadsword, he seemed to look at me with an admiring smile on is face,23

“Well, well, I can see your quite the fighter…course no boy of your age could possess such a skill” he began to walk around me slowly and dangerous, I growled at him, which made him laugh, “Well, you just confirmed it for me boy, no, I’m sorry….Skari” he spoke politely, having a deep voice for someone of his size, and began to walk towards me, in which I instinctively lashed out with the staff, which he easily parried,24

“Come now Skari, I don’t want to hurt you…” he said calmly, I was getting annoyed; I hadn’t even met him and yet he used my name as if he knew me all my life,25

“Stop using my name! I don’t even know you!” I yelled, before he smirked a little and ran forward with an amazing amount of speed. 26

I attempted to move out of the way, but he hit me very hard in the stomach with the flat of his blade, and as I fell down, he grabbed my cloak and yanked it off, showing my tail,27

“Your body’s adapting well, I can say that…” he kept watching me as I lay on the ground, the crowd of onlookers gasped, and a few started yelling obscenities, a pain started to grow inside of me as I started to growl overly deep, he must’ve seen something in my eyes which made him concerned,28

“Skari, calm down….the sooner this match is over, the quicker I can exp—“ he quickly dodged a kick that I aimed at his leg, and he brought the flat of the blade down towards me, which I caught with the staff, before leaping feet first into his chest, making him stumble back. He hit the ground and got back up very quickly, chuckling,29

“Your very good just fighting on your instincts, imagine if you were trained…”30

“SHUT UP!” I yelled and ran at him, twirling the staff, before jumping up and striking downwards, only to get the staff caught on the blade. I floated in mid air trying to think of how to get out of the situation; too bad Garret was fast, he moved the blade, span round, and hit me very hard in the face with the flat of the blade, I felt a searing pain run through my skull, and as my body hit the ground, the pain disappeared and everything went black.31

For some reason, as I began to wake up, I expected Fiera’s or Rayne’s vice to start asking me, but strangely enough, there was neither of them, just series of muttering,32

“Garret, did you really have’ta knock him out?”33

“Why’d you even spare him, why didn’t you just kill the monster?”34

“Ah, shut it, Damian”35

“You shut it!” the voices felt intense, and I blinked slightly, groaning, the world seemed like a very slow blur…and why wouldn’t it stop rocking from side to side? I went to get up, but my arm was suddenly stopped,36

“Huh? What the?” I said, a little weakly, everyone (Well, I thought it was everyone, they all were blurs to me) looked over at me,37

“Yeah…had to chain ya down, in case you tried to rip us apart” garret said, my head was throbbing, and the sounds were intensified, but luckily, my vision was fixing itself quickly. I was in a large mud brick house with a roaring fire at the other end of the room and several lanterns hanging from the roof to provide extra light, several tables and chairs were also scattered throughout the room, along with some soft chairs in a small enclosed area off to the side, I felt the various chains pinning my hands and torso to the wall,38

“I don’t wanna rip you apart…” a wave of nausea washed over me “just….how do you know me and why are you keeping me here?” I said, I heard Garret chuckle a little, and he crouched down in front of me,39

“Well, as strange as this’ll sound Skari…” he took a deep breath and told me something which nearly made my heart tear through my chest and want to faint at the same time:40

“I’m your uncle.”41

I sorta stare at him for a little bit, not believing what he said, no-one had ever mentioned I had an uncle…42

“Well, Skari, I see you’re awake, my, that Garret could really beat you to a pulp…” Fiera muttered, I scowled,43

“Thanks for the encouragement…” I said back to her, Garret started to undo the chains around me, one of the people behind him looked awestruck,44

“Dad? Please don’t tell me your seriously related to that-that thing!” he seemed to nearly scream it, the really big, silver haired man turned at the person, with a smile on his face,45

“Damian, would your father lie about something like this?” he said, Damian spat on the ground,46

“Probably, Uther, you know what he’s like…” he said, walking out, Uther shook his head and looked at me, 47

“Don’t listen to him kid, he’s going through a stage, not too fond of us Paranormals…” he muttered, his voice was sorta gruff, but I liked him, I could sorta connect, he smiled and poked me roughly,48

“This happen often, boy? Cos yesterday you looked a little different…”49

“What do you mean?” I asked, garret motioned for one of the men behind him to grab a bucket of water, in which he held so I could see myself, I nearly screamed, cos I was looking at a brown dragon.50

I quickly looked down at myself, at my hands, and feet, they were all covered in scales, and were thick and powerful, having 4 toes on each foot (I know I said hands, but I technically have 4 feet when I’m like that) which were mainly sharp claws, my body had grown long and sleek, I had a relatively short neck, and my head was long and pointed, with two horns on the top of my head, and a mouth full of thick pointed teeth. I looked at my back to see two large wings, which had skin like parchment in between the thing bones which supported it’s structure, I felt overjoyed and yet sad at the same time,51

“How did this happen? I didn’t do anything…” I muttered, getting on all fours, it’s the weirdest feeling, kinda like having four arms, I took a couple of steps, before I tripped over myself and fell flat on my face,52

“Ouch…” I muttered, Garret helped me up,53

“From what Fiera’s told me, it’s because of your age…” he said, my eyes grew wide, 54

“You know Fiera?” I asked, and a million questions began to form in my head at once, Garret nodded,55

“I can see that your happy to know you have an Uncle, but do you have any other relatives you know of?” he asked, a glint in his eyes showing that he knew something,56

“Well…” I started, sitting down “I know I have a Mum and Dad…but Fiera told me Dad’s dead…is that true?” I asked, garret suddenly looked extremely hurt, before closing his eyes and thinking of something,57

“Yeah…Yeah, he is…he just…disappeared from your Mother one day” he said, it sounded very difficult for him to say, then an old question popped up,58

“Why did Mum and Dad put me in an orphanage? Didn’t they care about me? Didn’t they want me? Cos….some days, when I think about them, I wished I didn’t really have parents!” I said getting a little angry, I felt Fiera sorta cringe in my head, and Garret suddenly got very angry,59

“Look, Skari, I know you’ve had a very hard time, never knowing your parents, living with your bloodline, being taken away from your best friend and being hunted, but your mother is like a sister to me, and I will not have her own son disown her for something that she was never involved in!” he boomed, Uther opened his mouth to say something, but stopped. I felt that horrible sickness you feel when you get yelled at, and, instinctively, my tail and head sorta drooped, Garret softened up,60

“He, I’m sorry, alright? It’s just that…you would not believe how heartbroken and depressed your mother had gotten when you were missing…” he walked over and pat my head, which caused me to look at him, he drew his hand away, “Sorry, just your size and…anyways, to her, you were the most amazing and precious thing to your mother, she loves you dearly…”61

“Wait…you said something before about me going missing…how?” I asked, garret nodded, and his eyes seemed very hard,62

“My brother, your father, took you and left you in that place…”63

Again, I felt stunned, and to be honest, I was starting to worry if I would be able to handle all of this news that was being told to me, I looked at the floor, tears dripping from my eyes,64

“W-Why?” I asked, Garret sat next to me and wrapped an arm around me comfortingly,65

“To tell you the truth, I don’t know…but, there is no excuse for doing that to you and your mother, and to honestly tell you the truth, if he was still here, I would never want to see your father again…” he said quietly, I buried my face into his chest,66

“Nobody deserves to loose the one they love! Nobody! It hurts so damn much!” I began to yell, “Hell, I don’t even know their names….all these years I’ve been missing nameless figures…” I said, Garret rubbed my neck softly, it was comforting,67

“Well, I am never gonna tell you your father’s name, you don’t need to know him…” he began, I looked up at him, which made him smile, “You’re looking at me just like your mother would…if you want your mother’s name you should ask Fiera, she knows her better than I do…” he said, I suddenly felt very puzzled, maybe it was because she was a dragon, but I still had to ask,68

“How—…”69

“Because Fiera’s your grandmother…” he said finally, I felt a little weak,70

“Is that true?” I muttered,71

“Yes, Skari…I should’ve told you earl—…” again, I never heard her finish.72

I fainted.73